Family and Education

b. c.1611, 1st s. of Edmund Maskelyne of Purton by Catherine, da. and coh. of Richard Davys of Little Mylton, Worcs. educ. M. Temple 1627. m. (1) 20 Sept. 1630, Jane (bur. 28 July 1633), da. of William Norden of Rowde, Wilts., 2s. d.v.p. 1da; (2) 7 Sept. 1635, Sybil (bur. 30 Dec. 1652), da. of Thomas Jacob of Wootton Bassett, Wilts., 4da. suc. fa. 1630.1

Offices Held

Biography

Maskelyne’s ancestors had been freeholders in Purton since the early 15th century. As a tenant of Sir Edward Hyde, his sympathies were doubtless royalist, but he managed to avoid involvement in the Civil War, and held no office until the eve of the Restoration. As lord of the hundred and borough, he had some interest at Cricklade, four miles from Purton, and was returned at the general election of 1660, the only member of the family to enter Parliament. He was named to no committees in the Convention, made no speeches, and on 14 July received leave to go into the country. He is unlikely to have stood again. On 18 Mar. 1662 he reported that he had seized goods belonging to the regicide Sir John Danvers^† to the King’s use, and he was rewarded with the grant of a weekly market and four fairs a year at Cricklade. In 1667 his annual income was estimated at only £300 p.a., but he endowed a parish charity and a Good Friday sermon with a rent-charge on his estate. He died on 30 Aug. 1679, and was buried at Purton.2

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / Leonard Naylor

Notes

• 1. Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv), 126; Add. 39690, ff. 29-35.
• 2. Wilts. Inquisitions (Index Lib. xxiii), 112-16; Cal. Cl. SP, v. 198, 270; CSP Dom. 1663-4, p. 46; Hoare, Repertorium Wiltonense, 15; Wilts. N. and Q. ii. 152.